Reconstruction of bone cavities or large bone defects is a challenge in reconstructive surgery. Today, such bone cavities or defects are usually treated with autologous (or autogenous) bone transplants, where the bone is obtained from the same individual receiving the autologous bone transplant. This is also known as an autologous grafting, meaning the donor of the bone and the recipient of the bone are the same, and grafting is a surgical procedure in which an organ or tissue, such as bone tissue, is transplanted, or attached to a damaged, missing, or defective part of the body. This treatment concept in a patient is useful in eliciting a healing response from the recipient bone, thus improving recovery of the patient. There is also a relatively low risk of this autograft bone being rejected, this since the autograft bone originated from the patient's own body. This treatment concept however bears additional risks for the patient since an additional surgical site is required, in effect adding another potential location for post-operative pain and other complications. Further, this treatment concept of using autograft bone material in reconstruction of bone cavities or large bone defects is relatively expensive and time consuming.
Another treatment concept is to use allograft bone material taken from an individual other than the one receiving the bone graft. Doctors often use an allograft bone, typically from a dead, frozen bone, instead of an autograft bone in bone grafting because of the relatively high risk of complications with the additional surgical site required with autologous bone transplants. However, this treatment concept of using allograft bone material has the inherent risk of transmitting bacteria's, prions, viruses or other pathogenic factors during the bone grafting. This risk cannot be completely excluded and immune reactions against foreign material may occur when using allograft bone material in reconstruction of bone cavities or large bone defects.
Another treatment concept, when treating bone cavities or defects, is to use alloplast material where the bone graft is made of plastic, metal, or other material foreign to the human body. Currently, alloplast material has a very limited regeneration capacity during bone grafting and fails to regenerate large bone defects, especially in those which are classified as one or two wall bone defects, e.g. vertical crest augmentation.
There is thus a need for an improved bone substitute structure to use in reconstruction of bone cavities and large bone defects and a method of manufacturing this bone substitute structure removing the above mentioned disadvantages.